1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system and in particular, to an improved method and system for managing objects within a data processing system. More specifically, the present invention relates to an improved method and system for managing partitioning large numbers of objects in a data processing system into manageable subsets.
2. Description of the Related Art
The manipulation of data in a data processing system is well known in the prior art. Data may be manipulated in many ways in a modern data processing system including: data accessing, data decoding, data communication, data compression, data conversion, data entry, data exchange, data filing, data linking, data locking, data mapping, data modeling, data recording, data sorting, and data transferring. The large amounts of data which are available to the user of a modern data processing system often become overwhelming in magnitude and complexity.
As a result of the increasing complexity of data processing systems, attempts have been made to simplify the interface between a user and the large amounts of data present with in a modern data processing system. One example of an attempt to simplify the interface between a user and a data processing system is the use of a so called Graphical Using Interface (GUI) to provide an intuitive and graphical interface between the user and the data processing system. The Common User Access (CUA) user interface is one example of such a GUI. "Common User Access" is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. The CUA user interface is often employed to organize and present large amounts of data to a user in a graphical and intuitive manner. One situation in which large amounts of data may be presented to a user involves modern distributed data processing systems.
Modern distributed data processing systems, also called networks, may consist of hundreds or thousands of computing devices of various kinds, often manufactured by different venders and interconnected by many types of transmission media, including telephone lines, satellites, digital microwave radio, optical fibers, or digital data lines. They may include local or wide area configurations. Administrators managing a network require an ability to determine the status of the various computing devices within the network in order to monitor and manage resources within the network. Currently, an administrator may view various components within the network in the form of nodes or icons displayed at the administrator's station. As the number of nodes (computers or other data processing systems) increase, the display becomes more cluttered and information is harder to discern.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a method and system for managing large amounts of data or objects within a data processing system.